New year, more us. Here at Defenders of the Faith, we’re committed to continue putting out content that will “Fill your heads with heavy metal thunder.” That means even more album reviews and interviews than last year. And it doesn’t get more productive than conducting your first interview of the year on New Year’s Day. That’s exactly what I did as I talked with Collin Wolf, guitarist for epic metal bands Smoulder and Fer de Lance, about shows, Sabbath, and everything in between.
Even though it’s an EP, I’d like to start by congratulating you on Fer de Lance’s Colossus making our Top 40 Albums of the Year list!
Collin Wolf: Hey man, I’m honored. It turned out beyond my expectations. When I was first presented with the songs, I was excited for them. They’re great songs. But when we got our masters back, it was a whole different world. We had recorded it and we were listening to our mixes from our engineer. We thought, “Okay. Yeah, this is pretty good.” But then he got a really good mix back and we were like, “Woah!” Then we sent it to The Boiler Room in Chicago. Colin Jordan is the guy. He has a huge, huge resume of metal mastering. We got that back and it was night and day. It was, “Holy shit we’ve got something on our hands here.”
How did the band and eventually the EP come together?
CW: Kevin (Hester) from Smoulder and I were recruited into Moros Nyx back in 2019. We had another guitarist involved as well because MP wanted to do just singing. He used to do lead guitars and vocals. We were gonna put together a whole new lineup. We did one rehearsal and it went really well, but it didn’t pan out as we wanted it to. MP had all these songs for this project called Fer de Lance. He and Rusty decided to put Moros Nyx on ice because they were really writing in the direction of Fer de Lance anyway. They asked me to stick around and be on board for that project. And I was more than honored. Once I heard the songs, I thought, “This is gonna be fun.”
Can we expect a Fer de Lance full length for 2021?
CW: You can expect a new release in 2021. Will it be a full length? Will it be another EP? That’s still up in the air. It’ll probably be a full length, but we’re still in the writing stages. We’ve got a bunch of songs we’re honing into. We’re planning on recording in 2021. When that will be, I don’t know. It’s all up to this pandemic and when we can actually get together.
Yeah, it may be a new year, but at this very moment, everything’s up in the air.
CW: Oh yeah. We’re booked to play Keep it True this year, both Smoulder and Fer de Lance. I’m hopeful, but not holding my breath.
Fer de Lance’s sound has been compared to 90s Bathory. What is your favorite Bathory album and why?
CW: Hammerheart, and here’s why. That was the first Bathory album I ever heard and really the one that stuck with me the most. I’ve really gotten into Blood on Ice since then. Nordland I, Nordland II, Twilight of the Gods: all great albums. I discovered black metal Bathory long after I discovered viking Bathory. So viking Bathory is how I’ve always seen Bathory. The early black metal stuff, while great, is not Bathory to me. Well, it is…but you know what I mean.
It’s practically two completely different projects. Hammerheart has always been my favorite as well. Even though the debut was my introduction, I heard Hammerheart right afterwards. Like you said, it just sticks.
CW: It really does. The two songs that really get me on that album are “Song to Hall Up High” and “Home of Once Brave”. Just perfect. I was in a black metal band and we were gonna cover that at one point. Never got around to it, but there may be a Bathory cover in the future for Fer de Lance, among a couple other things.
It could definitely work.
CW: We’re debating on if it’s a little too on the nose *laughs*, but yeah. Hammerheart is my favorite. After that, Blood on Ice and Nordland I. Nordland I is really where the Fer de Lance sound comes from. That’s where we’re really aiming in at. That’s where Rusty and MP’s Bathory background comes from. There’s obviously other big influences in there. We’re big Atlantean Kodex fans, big Blind Guardian fans, Falkenbach, Amorphis.
Now let’s talk a bit about your other band, Smoulder. Besides the fantasy themed lyrics, the backbone of the band’s sound are the epic, doomy riffs. Can you tell us how a Smoulder riff comes to be?
CW: That’s a good question. When I write riffs, I don’t really think about “This is gonna be a Smoulder riff.” or “This is gonna be a Fer de Lance riff.” or “This is gonna be an Olórin riff.” They’re in different tunings too. When I’m playing in said tuning, I’m kind of on that wavelength. But I’ll just write a riff and think, “That one would be good for Smoulder.” I’ve been trying to incorporate a more…epic doom is the heart of our sound, but I think we’ve really branched out into a more just epic metal sound. The doom is definitely there, but we’re not a doom band. You know what I mean?
Oh yeah. When I listen to you guys, the doom that I get out of it is a very traditional Dio era Sabbath doom.
CW: Yeah, totally. That’s kind of where we’re at. You know those weird, obscure epic metal bands? Everyone knows Manilla Road, but I’m talking about early Fates Warning, Twisted Tower Dire, Cauldron Born. I’m trying to bring in those winding passages and stay more power metal, but with that doom metal darkness to it.
In terms of playing and songwriting, who are your biggest influences?
CW: Definitely Mark Shelton of Manilla Road. He’s the lifeblood of my guitar playing in metal. It’s kind of hard for me to pinpoint influences as much as guitarists I idolize and want to be more like. My favorite guitarists of all time are Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore, Al Di Meola, the guys in Thin Lizzy. I’d say Manilla Road, Thin Lizzy, and Rush are my three biggest influences in terms of writing.
Over the past few years, Smoulder has played some pretty high profile gigs and festivals. Which one has been your favorite so far?
CW: Each one has been great, but there’s three that stick out. Hammer of Doom in Germany was a transcendental experience for me. That was the first time I had ever done anything like that. To go and play a big festival in Germany with some of the best names in doom: Sorcerer, While Heaven Wept, Coven. That was wild. I’ve been playing in bands since I was in high school. I’m 29 years old right now and never would I have ever thought that it would get that far. That was when we had our demo out and it was our fourth gig. It was incredible all the people I met there and all the German beer I drank.
I want to go back because I didn’t really get to spend any time there. I was at the festival and that was about it. I was out of vacation at work when I found out we were doing it, so I had to pull some shit. I flew in. We rehearsed the first day. The next day we played and the next day I flew home. I was a zombie. The town we were in, Würzburg, has two castles and a brewery. I didn’t see any of it. It was just go, go, go. Which is fine. If it ended today, I’d be happy and consider myself lucky that I got to do it.
Legions of Metal 2019 was another highlight. We played for a great crowd. Bob (Byrne) did awesome putting Traveler and us at the beginning. Traveler packed the house. We kept it going.
That was a very smart move. My favorite album of 2019 was the Traveler album. Your album was my second favorite. To have you two back to back was fantastic. And as I told JP (Abboud) from Traveler, I’ve never seen that room that packed that early.
CW: Legions of Metal is a family reunion. Obviously I’m not local in Chicago, but I’m an Illinois guy. I’ve been going to shows there forever. It’s the continuation of Ragnarokkr which was a big deal for me when I first went. I didn’t know half the bands, but I knew it was cool and there were a lot of cool people there. It’s where I met Jeff (Black) from Gatekeeper when Gatekeeper was a bedroom project. It’s crazy. I got to grow with a lot of these people who play in bands alongside us. Traveler’s a new band, but those guys have been around and been playing at Ragnarokkr. JP has been around forever with Borrowed Time and Gatekeeper. There’s Eternal Champion. And Demon Bitch too. Between them and White Magician, they’ve played Ragnarokkr and Legions of Metal. It’s just good to see a lot of the guys who were playing the second stage get up on the big stage, get their shot, and really tear the house down. Like I said, it’s just a big family reunion.
What was the third highlight?
CW: Playing with Pagan Altar in Toronto, 2019. We played with Pagan Altar, Cauchemar, and Blood Ceremony. It was all killer, no filler. The whole show was awesome. Blood Ceremony destroyed it. Cauchemar was great. I’ve seen Pagan Altar once before at Maryland Deathfest when Terry (Jones) was still alive. That was a great show, but this blew it away. The band was 10 times better. Brendan (Radigan) from Magic Circle just killed Terry’s vocal parts. I got to see them again the next week at the Chicago show. I got to enjoy it with my band and have this incredible show, but then I got to enjoy it with all my buddies.
That was probably the best show Smoulder ever played. We were the tightest then. I wish we had a longer set because we were on fire that night. It felt really good getting offstage then. Also, that was, bar none, the best onstage sound I’ve ever had. In terms of what I could hear, that guy blew it away with the live sound mix. And when I was seeing the other bands in the front of the house, it was killer. I’ve never seen a show with that good of a sound. Say at Legions of Metal, I couldn’t hear Shon (Vincent) as well as I wanted to. Those are things you just have to roll with, especially at a festival. You’ve only got so long to soundcheck and you only got so long of a set. But up in Toronto, this guy kicked ass. I could hear everything crystal clear, exactly how I needed to hear it.
Do you have a favorite song to play live?
CW: I think my favorite song is “Ilian of Garathorm” just because it riffs so hard. I really like playing “Shadowy Sisterhood”, and I really want to play “Bastard Steel” live again. Legions was the second time we broke it out live. When we did it in Toronto the first time, or the second time, we broke it out and it was not the full album version. It was the same length, but there weren’t as many guitar flourishes. We hadn’t figured it all out yet. So Legions was the first test of “Bastard Steel”. That was fully planned for the Greek tour.
Could you give us a little background on that? All I remember was the band had some shows scheduled around the same time the entire world imploded.
CW: It was a bad situation for everybody. Sarah (Kitteringham), Shon, and Adam (Blake) were already in Greece. About an hour after Kevin and I took off from Chicago, they cancelled everything. I had my phone off. When I landed in Switzerland, I thought, “Alright, we’re gonna get on the connecting flight and go to Athens.” Then I turned my phone on and it just blew up. “Turn around. Go home now. Everything is cancelled.” We were really lucky. We were able to transfer our flight at no cost and three hours later, be on the next flight to Chicago. It was the longest beer run of my life *laughs* and I got to see the Alps from the airport bar!
When can we expect new music from Smoulder?
CW: We are hard at work on the new album. I can tell you that and I’m really excited about it. There’s some really cool stuff. I think it’s definitely gonna top Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring. What we’re trying to do this time is to really write an album. We’re writing more songs than we need to purposefully so we can cut it down. I’m very proud of Times, but those were the songs we had. It’s the same vibe with the first Traveler album. A lot of those songs were rerecorded from the demo, whereas their latest was more of them writing an album. That’s what we’re going for. We’re gonna have throwaway tracks that if we’re not 100% about, they’re going.
We’re really gonna try to record it all together too. We’ve done it remotely just because of distance. Them coming down from Canada to record is a hard proposition, or us going up there. So we’re really gonna try and take the time to do that, especially if we can maybe get together at the end of the year, but there’s no gigs for us. Maybe I’ll just use my vacation and take a week off. We’re talking about going out to record with Arthur Rizk from Eternal Champion. He does some super high profile mixing and engineering jobs. We really like working with him. He likes us a lot. At this point, we just want to be in a studio together. Our demo was all of us together, so we want to recapture that feel.
So Times was recorded separately?
CW: Yeah, me and Kevin recorded our parts in Arlington Heights at Swift Road Studios with my buddy Vince. They recorded all their parts in Canada. Same with Dream Quest Ends. I’m amazed it worked as well as it did. I gotta give all the credit there to Kevin, our drummer. He pulls it all together. He’s one of our main songwriters too. He writes a lot of those riffs. He’s a Guitar Pro fiend.
I’ve asked you this question before, but I’m sure the readers would love to hear your reasoning. Heaven and Hell or Mob Rules?
CW: I’m glad you asked me this. I’m still gonna say Mob Rules, but I don’t know. There’s so many great songs on both of them. They’ve both got that fast song. There’s “Turn Up the Night” on Mob Rules and “Neon Knights” on Heaven and Hell. “Neon Knights” wins. “Die Young” and “Heaven and Hell” are incredible. But then there’s “The Sign of the Southern Cross”, which is one of my all time favorite Sabbath songs. “Over and Over” is possibly the best song of the Dio era. There’s so much emotion and power in that song. I’m still gonna give Mob Rules the edge, but it’s close. It’s like that SNL skit. “Who’d win in a fight? Ditka or God? Ditka, but it’s close.”
I know you’re involved in some other projects as well. Could you tell us about those?
CW: Yes! My other project Olórin, almost a decade later, we are finishing our album this month. We’ve got a date set and it’s happening. That’s the band that really broke me into the scene. I got to meet guys like Jeff from Gatekeeper, JP, the Demon Bitch guys, Eternal Champion. I was friends with the Olórin guys. Back in the day, I used to play in this band called Ängelust from Peoria. Down in Peoria, the pool of true metal bands was rather small. And there were these guys I had heard of, from the town next to where I went to college, called Olórin. They were doom metal that sang about Tolkien. I was like, “Well I’m into that! Let’s be friends!”
One of their guitarists left and I picked up the spot. That’s how I met Shon from Smoulder. We both played Ragnarokkr the year Oz and Omen were the headliners. He was playing with his other band, Gatekrashör. That was the first year I went. Olórin is always gonna have a place in my heart and is always gonna be a project of mine. Versus Smoulder, it’s truly a doom band.
Well I’m looking forward to that!
CW: Tucker (Thomasson) from Throne of Iron is doing all the recording, mixing, and mastering. We’re really stoked to get it out. Honestly, we’re more stoked to get it out so we can start working on new material! Besides putting in my leads, I really have no songwriting credits on this album. This was all written before I joined the band in 2014.
Yeah, it feels like we’ve been talking about this album for as long as we’ve known each other.
CW: Yeah, it’s our baby. Kevin from Smoulder plays drums in it too. He was really the big kick in the ass when we got him in the band. I met Kevin in college. He was in my fraternity. The night I met him, he was just this random dude in gym shorts. Someone brought him over to the house when he was a freshman. I was like, “Hey man! How’s it going? What kind of music do you like?” “I like heavy metal like Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, and Black Sabbath.” “Come to my room!” I think that night I introduced him to Manilla Road. He said, “I’m a drummer and I have this shitty drum set in the basement.” He played me some stuff and I thought, “Damn! This kid rocks!” And he’s only gotten better. Every time I play with him he’s better.
I don’t know if it will ever come to fruition, because we just got back into writing for Smoulder, but we were talking about learning some Steely Dan, The Police, and jazz fusion stuff. Our influences go in all different directions. Me and him connect on that prog rock, classic rock, jazz level. Maybe one day!